1. ISRO cranks up Gaganyaan project

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Friday said work on ‘Gaganyaan’, the project to send a manned mission to space by 2022, would start soon at the newly created Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC).

“Gaganyaan is our highest priority now,” K. Sivan, ISRO Chairman and Secretary, Department of Space, told reporters here. “We have put in a management structure to realise it. The Human Space Flight Centre [based in Bengaluru] will carry out all activities related to the human programme. Under it will function the Gaganyaan Project,” he added.

Dr. Sivan also announced the appointment of Unnikrishnan Nair — who led ISRO’s Advanced Space Transportation Programme at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) and has already worked in the area as the director of the Human Space Flight Project — as the director of the new centre.

“The year 2019 has started with a big bang with Gaganyaan getting the government’s approval and budget for putting three astronauts in space for seven days,” Dr. Sivan said. The astronauts will orbit Earth at a distance of 400 km.

“The HSPC will work full steam now,” Dr. Sivan said. “We must select the astronauts, train them, create and ensure livable conditions in space for them, bring them back safely and later rehabilitate them in their routines.”

The heavy lift launch vehicle GSLV Mark III, which got operational in November after its second successive flight in a row, must be suitably certified or human-rated. It will have two non-crew flights in December 2020 and July 2021.

The actual flight with crew is targeted to happen by December 2021 — to meet the Prime Minister’s goal of August 2022, India’s 75th Independence anniversary.

2. Trusted workhorse set to get new features

With the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) planning to keep the fourth and final stage of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) ‘alive’ in space as a useful ‘orbital platform’, the rocket — popularly dubbed ISRO’s trusted workhorse — is getting added features.

Set for lift-off this month with the Microsat-R payload, the upcoming PSLV-C44 mission will see a new variant of the PSLV in use. This variant, tagged PSLV-DL, will be the first to sport two strap-on boosters for providing added thrust.

Its final and fourth stage — PS4 — will be equipped with lithium-ion batteries, but no solar panels. An in-house technology, the lithium-ion cells are critical to keep the spent stage in orbit. Solar panels will be added, in all likelihood, in the next mission, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) Director S. Somanath says.

ISRO had hit upon the idea of transforming the expendable fourth stage into a makeshift satellite to reduce space debris. In a normal scenario, the initial stages of the rocket, once they detach, drop back into the sea. However, stage four, after releasing the payload, wanders around in space as junk.

If the plan is successful, the spent stage will be automatically ‘recycled’ into a valuable platform for space-based experiments.

Mr. Somanath said ISRO would perfect the technology with tests spread over multiple missions. On the C44 mission, the ISRO will also test the downloading of data from the stage to the ground station. In subsequent missions, the space agency will carry out experiments using the platform.

3. Will not accept high-value Indian currency, says Nepal

Upset over continued delays by New Delhi in exchanging demonetised currency, Nepal says it will not accept high-value Indian notes until the government gives specific assurances against future shocks.

Explaining the Oli government’s recent move to ban all Indian currency of denominations above ₹100, Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali said India was yet to respond to Nepal’s two-year-old demand for the return of more than ₹7 crore in demonetised notes held officially by the Nepali Rashtra Bank (NRB). “We have asked the Indian government on several occasions to settle the issue,” Mr. Gyawali told presspersons here on Friday. “We have now decided that on the use of high-value [Indian] currency, we will not allow it until we get an assurance from the Indian government,” he said.

When ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes were demonetised on November 8, 2016, countries such as Bhutan, Nepal and Myanmar were left holding large sums of the currency. While India settled the issue with Bhutan, it is yet to respond to Nepal’s requests, officials told The Hindu.

4. Banker, AAP leader Meera Sanyal dead

Meera Sanyal, top banker-turned-activist, who contested the Mumbai South seat in the last two Lok Sabha elections, passed away at her South Mumbai residence on Friday evening.

The former country head of Royal Bank of Scotland, the 57-year old Ms. Sanyal was battling cancer for over two years, and is survived by her husband and two children.

Her colleagues from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said Ms. Sanyal’s funeral would be a private affair.

Hers was a rare instance of an accomplished business honcho from Mumbai quitting the rat race to pursue social activism and even foray into politics.

She was the daughter of much-decorated naval officer Vice-Admiral Gulab Mohanlal Hiranandani.

5. Collegium recommends two names for apex court

The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and a Delhi High Court judge, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, for appointment to the apex court. Justice Khanna was appointed a judge of the Delhi High Court in June 2005 and continue there ever since. If appointed to the Supreme Court, he would succeed Justice D.Y. Chandrachud as the Chief Justice of India in 2024.

6. Ranil tables report on constitution proposals

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday tabled an experts’ report on the proposals to draft Sri Lanka’s new Constitution at the Constitutional Assembly sitting held in Parliament.

The move enables a discussion in the Constitutional Assembly, which in turn could help authorities present a draft of the Constitution in Parliament in the coming months, according to legislators.

Once debated in Parliament, the draft would have to be passed by a two-thirds majority in the House, and later endorsed by citizens in an island-wide referendum.

7. Ashok Chawla resigns as NSE chairman

Ashok Chawla resigned as the chairman and public interest director of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) informed a Delhi court that the Centre had given the go-ahead to prosecute five people, including Mr. Chawla, in the Aircel-Maxis matter.

“Ashok Chawla has resigned as public interest director/chairman of the board of directors of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE) with immediate effect in [the] light of recent legal developments,” the NSE said in a statement.

8. Hardik and Rahul pay for their indiscretion

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has suspended Hardik Pandya and K.L. Rahul, pending an enquiry, for comments made on the TV show Koffee with Karan.

An official BCCI media release late on Friday evening said the two players would return to India immediately and an enquiry and proceedings will be made against them.

The senior selection committee will soon name their replacements for the ODI series against Australia and the tour of New Zealand.

BCCI legal cell member Indranil Deshmukh advised the Committee of Administrators (CoA), following a request from member Diana Edulji, of the action that may be taken.

CoA head Vinod Rai had wanted a two-match ban on disciplinary count.

Edulji had also sought the views of BCCI acting president C.K. Khanna, acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary and treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry.

9. Three Indians among five leaders

Young Indian talent continued to get its share of attention after some fiercely-fought draws and few decisive encounters on the leading boards in the fourth round of the Delhi International Open chess tournament here on Friday.

After D. Gukesh, N.R. Visakh and Rohit Krishna proved equal to Russian Grandmasters Alexandr Predke, Ivan Rozum and Georgia’s Luka Paichadze — seeded two, five and seven — 16-year-old Neelash Saha continued his splendid run to stay among the leaders.

The day that began with 23 leaders ended with just five in the lead. Besides Saha, who upstaged Armenian GM Karen Movsziszian, others in the leaders’ group were Diptayan Ghosh, Debashis Das and the two Iranians, former champion Ehsan Ghaem Maghami and Masoud Mosadeghpour.

10. Vatican nuns will compete for Olympic glory

The newly-formed Vatican Athletics team, which is aiming to compete in international competitions, including the Olympics, was officially launched on Thursday after reaching a bilateral agreement with vaticanthe Italian Olympic Committee (CONI).

So far there are 60 members of Vatican Athletics — the first Sports Association constituted in the Holy See — which includes nuns, priests, Swiss Guards and other workers.

Monsignor Melchor Josş Sŕnchez de Toca y Alameda, president of Vatican Athletics, said at the launch that the Olympic Games were “the dream but not in the short term”.

“The dream that we have often had is to see the Holy See flag among the delegations at the opening of the Olympic Games,” he said.

But in the immediate future Vatican Athletics would like to be present at smaller competitions such as the Mediterranean Games.

Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) President Giovanni Malago praised the latest initiative at the Holy See which already has football and cricket teams.

11. China’s moon rover prepares for a rough ride

China on Friday hailed its historic mission to the far side of the moon as a “complete success” so far but said new challenges await its rover as it explores rugged terrain.

The Chang’e-4 probe — named after a moon goddess — made the world’s first soft landing on the moon’s “dark side” on January 3, a major step in China’s ambitions to become a space superpower.

The mission sent the first panoramic image of its landing site on Friday, showing the grey moonscape it is exploring and the track marks left by the rover in the lunar soil.

12. Musk unveils prototype of Mars-bound rocket

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has unveiled the first pictures of a retro-looking, steely rocket called Starship that may one day carry people to the Moon and Mars.

Mr. Musk posted pictures on Twitter late on Thursday of the test version of the Starship Hopper, which awaits its first flight test in Texas in the coming weeks.

The prototype, built in Boca Chica, along the Gulf Coast of Texas, is nine metres in diameter — like the future rocket will be — but is shorter.

Its first test flights — suborbital “hops” reaching several km in the air before landing back on Earth — could come in March or April.

An orbital prototype is expected in June. That version will be paired with a massive rocket booster known as the Super Heavy.

SpaceX has said the duo could some day transport people from city to city on Earth, as well as propel passengers around the Moon, to the lunar surface, and even to Mars and back.

13. ‘Oceans are heating up at a fast pace’

The world’s oceans are heating up at an accelerating pace as global warming threatens a diverse range of marine life and a major food supply for the planet, researchers said on Thursday.

The findings in the U.S. journal Science, led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, debunk previous reports that suggested a so-called pause in global warming in recent years.

The latest technology shows no such hiatus ever existed, raising new concerns about the pace of climate change and its effect on the planet’s main buffer — the oceans.

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